The Black Phone (Scott Derrickson, 2022)

[DarkImbecile]

Outside of a couple of attempts at big budget sci-fi/fantasy, Scott Derrickson is primarily a horror director, so it’s not too surprising that the primary complaint about The Black Phone, even amid its mostly positive critical reception, is that it’s not scary enough. This feels like it somewhat misses the point though, because — despite adapting a supernatural short story about a boy in the clutches of a late-70s serial child murderer — Derrickson’s goal here never seems to be the kind of edgy, disturbing shock of Sinister’s lawnmower scene. Instead, he very clearly seems interested in examining the more mundane fears for kids of that era, in a way that feels personal and makes this more unique and effective than it would be if it appeased hardcore horror fans.

There are still jump scares, gory violence, and ghostly imagery — some more effective than others — but those don’t linger the way the depictions of bullying, domestic violence, and the loneliness of latchkey kid life do. Occasionally switching to Super 8 and incorporating but not overindulging cultural references like, well, Super 8, Derrickson evokes the feel of Gen X childhood surprisingly well, and if The Black Phone becomes a cult object moving forward, I suspect this will be one of the key reasons.

One of the other reasons might be Ethan Hawke, whose masked ‘Grabber’ is memorable given limited screen time and even more limited face time; Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw also give quite strong performances as sibling protagonists, a believable mix of precociousness and neuroses for middle-school-age kids.

This isn’t anything revolutionary or groundbreaking, but it’s the kind of thing I would have really liked when I was the age of the kids in the film, and I was happily surprised that this was ambitious enough to modestly stand out from the standard Blumhouse horror entry.

[therewillbeblus]

This take essentially resembles my experience watching the film as well. I read a few articles that seem to believe The Black Phone is more groundbreaking in its themes than it really is, but what sells the movie is the pair of strong central child perfs channeling callbacks to not only late 70s/80s kids-besting-adults 'scary' coming-of-age adventure films, but the actual experience of being a kid in a position of powerlessness and both dreaming up and actualizing power where you can. Seeing the film as some high-brow meditation on makeshift collectivistic social support in individualistic communities seems to be a projection that's desperately searching for sociopolitical optimism in America right now, and in the process misses the point that this is conscientiously exploiting most kids' developmentally-appropriate imaginative adventures that place them in situations of danger and explore how they might survive them. Though maybe that adult-spawned bandwagon is indicative that many of us are also despondent and reverting back into a stage where we need imaginative vehicles like artistic Dream Machines to safely express our doubts and locate hope! This is not a great movie by any means, but it's much better than it has any right to be given its premise and the on-paper execution of some of these ideas, and treats the narrative with the same balance of playfulness and sincerity that a child would allot their daydreams. While much of this is pitched seriously, I did enjoy the bits of humor, particularly Madeleine McGraw's back-talking to the cops based on their misjudgments of what her psychic abilities are or can be- probably because her role reminded me a lot of Ally Sheedy's protagonist in Fear, more than other psychic vs. serial killer fluff from Stephen King etc., and her shining moments evoked similar pleasures to that undervalued film.

[The Curious Sofa]

Good child performances indeed, but The Black Phone was trying a little too hard for my taste. It's central premise

Spoiler

of the dead victims calling the current kidnapped kid to give him clues is solid and would and haven been enough. Including a second supernatural element (the sister's prophetic dreams, which doesn't amount to much) and the Grabber's over-designed mask, which is screaming "iconic horror villain, ready for sequels" didn't do much for me. There also appears a queer element to the killer, which the film is happy to hint at, but then never really deals with.

The film is a decent enough watch, I felt invested enough in the brother and sister relationship, which was touching but I'd preferred it had it gone easy on the horror conventions.

[Finch]

Agreeing with everyone on The Black Phone. It's a good film that succeeds in many respects but as a horror film it's not scary enough (I feel instead of using jump scare music, they could have employed more subtle sound design). I did like the little suspense sequence of Finney (spelling?) trying to crack the lock numbers while the Grabber dozes out of focus in the background. I'd have liked to see more of that. Derrickson spends enough time with the kids that I was invested in what happens to them. One of Blumhouse's better efforts.

[DarkImbecile]

Wide-ranging Walter Chaw interview with Derrickson on why he made this film now, faith, horror, and other topics